Morpheme distribution is declared sufficiently independent of phonological considerations to warrant a theory of autonomous morphology. The "maximal nesting principle" proposed requires that each affix be attached to a new nonterminal node. This principle forces a new analysis of "-ate" derived verbs and eliminates the morphological abstractions…

The results of three experiments investigating where native speakers have a morpheme boundary between stems and word-final English derivational suffixes are reported. The way speakers organize phonological data is demonstrated. The results challenge the generative phonological hypothesis of maximal generalization and assumptions concerning…